I am very happy with what I created; I feel that I achieved everything I set out to.
For example, I wanted to show the passing of time throughout in order to justify my character's emotions building up, leading to her ultimate suicide. I demonstrated this by using sunny shots with warm lighting and progressing to snowy, white shots. This effectively demonstrated how the seasons were changing, and consequently how my protagonist felt like she could not go on longer.
Furthermore, I focused in-depth on my mise-en-scene. For instance, in terms of costume, my bully wore red. This was to symbolise danger due to the connotations of the colour. However, it is also conventional of the bully's costume in bullying films. Therefore, I conformed to this convention to make it obvious that this character was dangerous. In addition, red represents evil and my film is a battle between good and evil (binary opposites).
My protagonist started in dark greens and blues, which progressively turned to greys and blacks to reflect he decline into depression. Moreover, these colours are not as eye-catching, which reflects how my character was being ignored and felt invisible as a result of the bullying.
In addition, I used mostly bright shots with high key lighting. This was to represent the hope felt by my main character. These juxtaposed with the 'dip to black' used in the transitions, representing the encroaching darkness which would eventually take over.
Many scenes were filmed in front of bright red lockers. Again, the red surrounding my main character reflects how th danger engulfed my protagonist; she had no escape. However, lockers symbolise school therefore I used these to display to the audience where my film was set immediately. Seen as my short film is silent, using symbols and motifs was important to me; it gives the audience clues into context.
I also used a wide range of cinematography. For example, I highlighted the confrontation in my film
by using a shot-reverse-shot in the scenes between both my protagonist and antagonist, which created more tension.
These contrasted with the two shots used in the last scene between my protagonist and 'the helper' when my main character finally gets help and a friend. This represents how one person helping can save a person from their relentless confrontation.
I also used extreme close-ups of my protagonist's eyes. I wanted my audience to relate to and sympathise with this character and they say that "the eyes are windows to the soul" therefore by showing the audience her eyes, she is made to appear more real and similar to audiences, creating pathos. I also used eyes as a recurring motif in order to represent introspection and how my character reflected on her life, leading her to suicide. I also used mirrors to symbolise this self-reflection.
Although my short film is silent, I used instrumental music underneath my footage. I chose piano music with a slow pace as this suited the melancholic atmosphere I strived to create. I did not want this to distract from the footage, but accompany it. Therefore, I altered the volume so it was not too loud. I used two pieces of music. One was calm, not quite happy, but not sad. I began with this to put my audience in a false sense of security. This made the rest of the story more shocking; at the beginning everything was normal. When the bullying began, I transitioned seamlessly to a different piece of music, which was more sad and depressing.
I think that I created tension well throughout my piece. I did this through the aforementioned shot-reverse-shots. In addition, I also foreshadowed my character's suicide. In the shots on the pier, I included a section where my protagonist leans over the barrier. I then cut to a view of the sea below and then to he shoes walking towards the edge. This made the audience tense as they thought this was the point where she would commit suicide, which is what I aimed for. When she does not, again the audience are put in a false sense of security, which makes it even more shocking when she actually does.
However, I did not show the suicide explicitly. My film, with its educational themes, has the potential to be shown in films. As a result, I did not want to show anything too graphic. Another potential target audience of this film are people suffering with the same issues as my protagonist and I did not want to give them any ideas, as my aim is to prevent this kind of thing from happening. Therefore, I super-imposed a shot of her writing a suicide note over a still shot of her. This symbolised her suicide in a non-graphic way.
Due to the educational themes, I included the bullying helpline number in the film itself and ended with a shocking statistic about bullying. I wanted to end with a real-life fact to remind audiences that this is not fictional, but does happen in modern life. I left the melancholic music playing over this also, to maintain the sad tone created in the film and make the effects more lasting.In addition, I used a frame hold in my film to pause the action to reveal the title. I decided to incorporate the title later in the film because I felt that after seeing the bullying, the link was much more obvious. Furthermore, by pausing the action, it reminded audiences that we were observing somebody's life and they were powerless to help, but they can help in real life. Also, I used the same font used in my poster and double page spread to create a strong and professional house style throughout my products.
Moreover, I incorporated aspects of verbal, physical and cyber bullying to make the story more relatable to a wider group of people. Furthermore, with the proliferation of technology, it was important to me to include cyber bullying as a theme because this is particularly common in modern society.
I decided to use a forking path narrative to represent the complexity of mental health issues and bullying. I also wanted to display the harsh reality of bullying and the consequences, whilst giving an example of how things could change. I also did not want to end negatively however my use of the statistic at the end reminded audiences that this does happen.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with my short film because:
- it is the first film I have ever made
- it looks professional
- the footage suits the music very well
- I used a wide range of interesting cinematography, from extreme close-ups to pans and high-angle shots
- the editing is professional and aids the flow if the piece
- I successfully portrayed the educational, serious themes of the topic
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